The Times of Israel liveblogged Wednesday’s events as they unfolded.
Sirens have been triggered in the Western Galilee region due to a suspected drone infiltration from Lebanon.
US refined products exports hit a record high in March as the Iran war left Europe, Asia and Africa scrambling to fill supply shortfalls created by the near-complete closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran has been disrupting shipping in the strait, through which oil and fuel exports flow that represent a fifth of global consumption. The loss of these supplies has forced production cuts at plants in those regions, causing price spikes and threatening an economic slowdown.
US exports of clean petroleum products, which include gasoline, naphtha, diesel and jet fuel, hit about 3.11 million barrels per day in March, up from about 2.5 million bpd in February, data from vessel-tracking service Kpler shows. That is the highest monthly level in Kpler records going back to 2017.
US fuel exports to Europe rose nearly 27% month-over-month to 414,000 bpd in March, while exports to Asia more than doubled to 224,000 bpd, the Kpler data shows. Exports to Africa surged 169% to 148,000 bpd.
“These flows are a reflection of the global supply tightness pulling barrels out of the US Gulf Coast export hub,” Kpler analyst Matt Smith says.
“The longer that Strait of Hormuz disruptions go on, the greater dislocations there are on a global basis, which will force new trade routes to open up,” he says.
US refiners last month shipped a record amount of fuel on routes rarely used before, such as from the US Gulf Coast to Australia, and even US markets that themselves are reliant on imports shipped fuel out to Europe and elsewhere.
For example, about 72,000 bpd of clean petroleum products were shipped from the US East Coast to Europe last month, the second-highest in Kpler records after a peak of 84,000 bpd in September 2024. The US East Coast typically imports diesel from Europe.
Australia says it may invoke its gas security policy to help reserve domestic gas after a watchdog warned of a possible shortfall in the third quarter of 2026 as the Middle East conflict disrupts global energy markets.
Resources Minister Madeleine King says she will consult with major gas producers over supplies to the domestic market and will make a decision on whether to use the so-called Australian Domestic Gas Security Mechanism (ADGSM) by mid-May.
“The notice does not place any limits on gas exports. Currently, Australia’s domestic market is well supplied with Australian gas,” King says in a statement.
The United Arab Emirates’ foreign ministry says that claims regarding the residency status of Iranians in the Gulf country were “inaccurate,” affirming that the UAE embraces the Iranian community as an integral part of its diverse social fabric.
Dubai-based airline Emirates said on its website earlier today that Iranian nationals were not allowed to enter or transit the United Arab Emirates, while Flydubai said Iranian nationals holding a UAE “Golden Visa” were exempt and permitted to enter and transit the country.
Former Iranian foreign minister Kamal Kharazi was seriously wounded in a strike that also claimed the life of his wife, Iranian media reports.
Still an adviser to the government, Kharazi had given an interview to CNN a few weeks ago.
According to the newspapers Shargh, Etemad and Ham Mihan, his home in Tehran was targeted earlier today in a US-Israeli strike.
He was badly injured and hospitalised following the attack, the outlets say.
Kharazi had served as foreign minister from 1997 to 2005 under reformist ex-president Mohammad Khatami.
A US military option to seize some 450 kilograms of highly enriched uranium would require flying in excavation equipment and building a runway for cargo planes to fly off with the radioactive material, two people familiar with the matter tell The Washington Post.
US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense is needed to protect civilians, but that Israel should pay for the system without US help.
The statement comes in response to a report saying that Ocasio-Cortez, one of the most prominent progressives in Congress, had said she would vote against providing defensive aid to Israel, a change to her previous position.
“The Israeli government is well able to fund the Iron Dome system, which has proven critical to keep innocent civilians safe from rocket attacks and bombardment,” Ocasio-Cortez says in a statement.
“I will not support Congress sending more taxpayer dollars and military aid to a government that consistently ignores international law and US law,” she says, without specifying which laws she is referring to. Israel has not been convicted of any international legal violations.
“Netanyahu’s allies in the Knesset just approved a $45 billion defense budget,” she says. “It is fully within their ability to fund Iron Dome and other defensive systems.”
The statement does not include any explicit commitments about her future votes.
The United States has lifted sanctions on Venezuelan interim president Delcy Rodriguez, who took power after Washington ousted her predecessor, Nicolas Maduro, in a military operation.
Rodriguez’s name was deleted from the US “Specially Designated Nationals List” according to a post on the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control website.
Bahrain’s effort to secure a UN resolution to authorize “all necessary means” to protect commercial shipping in and around the Strait of Hormuz ran into new obstacles today, underscoring divisions over how to deal with Iran’s effective closure of the waterway that has resulted in the worst energy-supply disruption ever.
Bahrain, which took over the presidency of the 15-member UN Security Council for the month of April, had circulated a fresh version of a draft resolution that dropped a previous explicit reference to binding enforcement, hoping to overcome objections from other nations, particularly Russia and China.
But a UN diplomat said China, Russia and France raised issues with the new draft before it would have gone into final form at noon today under a so-called silence procedure – where a resolution is adopted if no member objects. Bahrain’s UN ambassador Jamal Fares Alrowaiei told reporters the resolution still required “a lot of work.”
Major Gulf and Western powers still do not have a concrete plan to reopen the waterway, which has been effectively shut since the conflict began a month ago, sending energy prices soaring. Roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil and gas normally transits the crucial strait.
“There are ongoing communications and discussions with the Council members to bring a convergence of views and find a draft that can garner consensus, so that it can be adopted soon,” Alrowaiei says.
The US Energy Department says that it will loan up to 10 million barrels of crude oil from the strategic petroleum reserve site in Bryan Mound, and will accept proposals from companies until 11 a.m. Central Time on April 6.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian says in a letter addressed to the American people that his country harbors no enmity toward ordinary Americans, Press TV reports.
He says in his letter that portraying Iran as a threat is “neither consistent with historical reality nor with present-day observable facts.”
“Which of the American people’s interests are truly being served by this war?” he asks. “Is it not also the case that America has entered this aggression as a proxy for Israel, influenced and manipulated by that regime?”
To the people of the United States of America pic.twitter.com/3uAL4FZgY7
— Masoud Pezeshkian (@drpezeshkian) April 1, 2026
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian will release an open letter to the American people in the coming hours, his spokesperson Mehdi Tabatabai says.
US President Donald Trump claimed earlier today that Iran’s “new” president wants a ceasefire. Trump didn’t specify who he was referring to and Pezeshkian has been president since 2024. Pezeshkian is also not seen to carry much influence over Iran’s decision-making.
Regardless, Iran’s foreign ministry called Trump’s claim “false.”
A strike in northwestern Iraq killed two fighters from the Iran-backed former paramilitary coalition Hashed al-Shaabi on Wednesday, the alliance says, blaming the US and Israel.
An official with the group tells AFP there were “two dead and six wounded in a Zionist-American aggression” on a position in Tal Afar district in Nineveh Governorate, near the Syrian border.
The alliance is also known as the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), and is now part of Iraq’s regular armed forces, although it also contains pro-Iran factions.
The IDF says that two rockets fired by Hezbollah from Lebanon a short while ago fell in open areas, as they were not intercepted in accordance with the military’s policies.
The rockets triggered sirens across the center of the country as Israelis are in the midst of their Passover seders.
There are no immediate reports of injuries.
In tonight’s address to the nation, US President Donald Trump “will give an operational update on the progress of Operation Epic Fury, which is meeting or exceeding all of its benchmarks,” a White House official tells The Times of Israel.
“He will highlight the United States military’s success in achieving all of its stated goals prior to the operation,” the official continues.
The official says that the goals are as follows: Destroying Iran’s deadly ballistic missiles and production facilities, annihilating Iran’s navy, ensuring Iran’s terrorist proxies can no longer destabilize the region and guaranteeing that Iran can never obtain a nuclear weapon.
Trump said yesterday that his only goal for the war has been to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that the goals also include destroying Iran’s air force.
The White House official says Trump will likely reiterate that the war will take another two-three weeks, in what would probably extend the conflict beyond the four-to-six week timeline that Washington has been offering.
A rocket attack from Hezbollah has triggered sirens across the center of the country as Israelis are in the midst of their Passover seders.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX has filed confidential papers with US securities regulators for what could be the largest-ever public stock offering, a source familiar with the matter tells AFP.
The filing puts SpaceX on track to list on a public exchange by July, according to the Wall Street Journal, which cited people familiar with the matter.
SpaceX does not immediately respond to a request for comment. Officials at the Securities and Exchange Commission declined comment.
US media have reported that the IPO could be valued at a whopping $75 billion or more for a venture with stratospheric ambitions.
The IPO looks set to blow past the biggest public offering on record from 2019, when the oil group Saudi Aramco raised $25.6 billion.
SpaceX, which dominates the space launch market with its reusable rockets, is owned by Musk alongside several investment funds and tech companies, including Google’s parent Alphabet.
The company’s rockets vastly reduce the cost of putting satellites into orbit. SpaceX is also the owner of the Starlink satellite constellation.
In February, Musk announced that SpaceX was taking over his artificial intelligence outfit xAI, a step in the billionaire’s plan to use SpaceX’s rockets to launch solar-powered, satellite-based data centers to develop and run future AI models.
US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York said she will no longer vote in favor of funding defensive aid to Israel, according to a report in City & State.
US defensive military aid to Israel supports missile defense programs, such as Iron Dome, which protect Israeli civilians.
Ocasio-Cortez, one of the most prominent political figures on the US left, made the comments in a private meeting with the far-left New York City Democratic Socialists of America, City & State reports.
At the meeting, an attendee asked Ocasio-Cortez, “Will you commit to voting ‘no’ for any spending on arms for Israel, including so-called ‘defensive capabilities?'”
“Yes,” she responded, according to the report.
Ocasio-Cortez had previously opposed offensive weapons to Israel, but not defensive systems, drawing criticism from the left.
In 2021, Ocasio-Cortez voted “present” during a vote to fund Iron Dome, rather than opposing.
Ocasio-Cortez also said she will oppose the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism, City & State reports, citing three DSA members who were at the meeting.
The definition covers some forms of Israel criticism, while stating that it is not antisemitic to criticize Israel if that criticism is similar to comments against other countries.
During a wave of airstrikes in Tehran overnight, the Israeli Air Force hit some 15 Iranian weapon production sites, the military says.
Among the sites was a “central complex” of the Iranian defense ministry, for the production and development of “advanced” anti-aircraft missiles, the military says.
The IDF says it also struck air defense systems, launch sites, and ballistic and anti-aircraft missile manufacturing and storage sites as part of the wave of strikes.
In the past two days, the IDF says it carried out over 400 strikes in Iran, using over 650 munitions.
A suspect is indicted for beating a Jewish man on a New York City subway.
Neil Hurlock, 20, a Brooklyn resident, is charged with assault, menacing, robbery and aggravated harassment — all as hate crimes — as well as other charges.
On the morning of March 2, Hurlock, wearing a black face mask, followed his Jewish victim onto a train at the Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center subway station in Brooklyn, the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office says.
Hurlock allegedly punched the victim in the face twice, picked the victim up while striking him, threw the victim onto the subway seats, and punched him in the face several more times.
Hurlock allegedly called the victim a “Fucking Jew” during the attack.
The victim was reading a religious text and identifiable as Jewish due to his clothing, including a kippah, the district attorney says.
The attacker allegedly removed the kippah from the victim’s head before fleeing the scene.
During the attack, the defendant’s phone fell out of his pocket. The victim picked up the phone, called police, and was transported to a hospital, where he was treated for pain, bruising and swelling on his head and cuts on his hands.
The police executed a search warrant for the phone, obtained its number, and arrested Hurlock several days later after an investigation.
Hurlock was released and is set to appear in court in June.
“This defendant is accused of brutally assaulting a man in an unprovoked and senseless act of anti-Semitic hate. The impact of crimes like this radiates through entire communities and we will seek strong accountability because we have no tolerance for hate fueled violence in Brooklyn,” Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez says in a statement.
Jews are targeted in hate crimes more than all other groups combined in New York City.
Axios cites three unnamed US officials as claiming that the US and Iran are discussing a potential ceasefire deal that would see the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
The officials clarify that it’s not clear whether a deal can actually be reached.
They also didn’t say whether the talks are happening directly or only through mediators.
Kuwaiti firefighters extinguished a blaze that broke out earlier in the day in fuel tanks at Kuwait airport following an Iranian drone attack, the government says.
There were no casualties, and only material damage was reported.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson says US President Donald Trump’s statement on Iran requesting a ceasefire was false and baseless, Iranian state TV reports.
Damage was caused to homes and cars in the central cities of Rosh Haayin and Petah Tikva by the Iranian ballistic missile carrying a cluster bomb warhead earlier, rescue services say.
Another bomblet struck a playground in Petah Tikva, causing damage, footage shows.
No injuries were caused.
תיעוד זירת פגיעת רסיס טיל איראני בפתח תקווה
שימוש לפי סעיף 27א' בחוק זכויות יוצרים@hadasgrinberg pic.twitter.com/gRLFKBm2EQ— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) April 1, 2026
No injuries are reported following Iran’s latest ballistic fire on central Israel, the sixth attack since this morning.
The small number of missiles hit open areas, according to initial IDF assessments.
Two currency exchange stores in Beirut were bombed by the Israeli Air Force overnight, with the IDF saying they had been used to finance Hezbollah.
The military says it struck Boa Chance, owned by Hussein Ibrahim, and Trade Point International, which is owned by Mohamad Noureddine.
The two money exchange offices were struck after the IDF says it “identified that they continued transferring funds to Hezbollah that are used for terror activity.”
“Hezbollah’s systematic use of money exchange offices for terror financing and money laundering… is one of the primary methods for Hezbollah to finance and conceal Iranian funds,” the IDF says in a statement.
The IDF has identified additional ballistic missile fire from Iran, again targeting central Israel as well as northern Israel
Sirens are expected to sound shortly.
Most of the roughly ten ballistic missiles fired by Iran at Israel a short while ago were intercepted by air defenses, according to the IDF.
The military says some missiles were allowed to hit open areas, “according to protocol,” and one missile, apparently carrying a cluster bomb warhead, spread bomblets in central Israel.
Rescue forces are heading to the scenes of reported impacts, though there are no immediate reports of injuries.
The Israeli Air Force has launched an “extensive” wave of strikes in Tehran, the military says.
The IDF says the strikes are targeting dozens of Iranian regime infrastructure sites.
“Simultaneously, the Air Force is operating to intercept the threat in all regions,” the military adds.
The strikes come as Iran launched a barrage of ballistic missiles at central Israel.
In the largest Iranian salvo on Israel since the early days of the war, some 10 ballistic missiles were fired at central Israel a short while ago, according to initial IDF assessments.
Rescue forces say they are responding to reports of impacts, possibly caused by falling fragments, in several areas.
There are no immediate reports of injuries.
Iran’s missile fire on Israel had slowed to around 10-15 missiles a day in the past two weeks, down from around 90 on the first day of the war.
Until this afternoon, Iran had not carried out large missile barrages, with recent attacks composed of a small number of missiles, usually between one and three.
Sirens continue to sound in central Israel amid Iran’s latest ballistic missile salvo.
Several missiles were launched, and the IDF says it is working to intercept them.
Concurrently, sirens sounded in the Golan Heights due to rocket fire by Hezbollah from Lebanon.
There are no immediate reports of injuries.
Iran would welcome Russia as a mediator to help resolve the conflict with the United States and Israel, Russia’s state‑run TASS news agency cites Iran’s envoy to Moscow, Kazem Jalali, as having said.
The IDF has identified a ballistic missile attack from Iran, targeting central Israel.
Sirens are expected to sound in the coming minutes.
IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin says the military is on alert for potential attacks by Iran and Hezbollah during the Passover Seder tonight.
“It is possible that the Iranian terror regime and the Hezbollah terror organization will fire toward the country’s territory, with the aim of harming Israeli civilians during the holiday,” Defrin says in a video statement.
“Our defense systems are deployed and ready to intercept threats across the country. Even on the holiday eve, it is important to remember that the defense is not hermetic. I call on you, adhere to the Home Front Command’s instructions,” he says.
A reporter for Politico Europe who profiled UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese, who is known for saying the “Jewish lobby” had “subjugated America,” deletes his X account after his own Jewish lobby comment surfaces.
Albanese has a history of antisemitism and inflammatory rhetoric toward Israel, and is under US sanctions due to her conduct.
Politico Europe published a profile about Albanese and the sanctions yesterday, calling the 2014 Jewish lobby comment “a term that recalled racist theories about global Jewish conspiracies.” The comment was first exposed by The Times of Israel.
UN Watch, a nonprofit watchdog group, finds X comments from the same year by the reporter who wrote the article.
The reporter, Karl Mathiesen, wrote, “Can someone explain the US reluctance to stand up to Israel? Is it the Jewish lobby? How powerful can it be?”
Another user responded with a dollar sign, to which Mathiesen said, “Okay, gotcha. But where exactly does that transaction occur? Banks? Stock markets?”
.@POLITICOEurope Why did you assign a profile of Francesca Albanese—who says the US is controlled by ”the Jewish lobby”—to a guy who wonders if “the Jewish lobby” controls US policy, asking “Where exactly does that transaction occur? Banks? Stock markets?”https://t.co/JsUVknsxBK https://t.co/aqRkoylxBT pic.twitter.com/LOhzgRjk7M
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) April 1, 2026
Mathiesen deletes his account on X after the posts come to light.
Earlier this week, Politico removed a cartoon from its website after the illustration was criticized as antisemitic.
Some of US President Donald Trump’s aides tell the Axios news site that they believe the American leader is “mostly improvising, rather than following any clear plan” regarding the Iran war.
The aides tell Axios that Trump “likes to keep his options open, spitball with different audiences, then capitalize if he thinks he sees an opportunity.”
The aides say that they have been convinced at various points throughout the war that Trump was leaning toward a major escalation and at other points was eager for a swift end to the war.
“Nobody knows in the end what he’s really thinking,” a senior adviser says.
“They had a plan for the first week and since then, they are making the plan up as they go along,” a former US official says.
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham defends Trump’s conduct. “That’s the plan — for you to not have a clue.”
Another administration official goes further: “This isn’t 3D chess — it’s 12-dimensional. He contradicts himself regularly, so nobody knows what he’s thinking. It’s on purpose.”
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards confirm that they had struck an oil tanker in the Gulf, claiming it belonged to Israel.
“An oil tanker belonging to the illegitimate and child-killing Zionist regime with the trade name ‘Aqua 1’ in the central region of the Persian Gulf was precisely targeted in the valiant missile battle of the IRGC naval forces, and is burning,” the Guards say in a statement carried by state television.
Qatar had earlier said the tanker was hit in its territorial waters.
Iran has previously claimed to hit tankers belonging to Israel when the connections to the Jewish state were indirect at best.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards insist that the strategic strait of Hormuz will remain closed to the country’s “enemies,” as US President Donald Trump said he would only consider a ceasefire if it was reopened.
“The situation in the Strait of Hormuz is also firmly and dominantly under the control of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ naval forces,” the Guards says in a statement carried on state TV, adding that it “will not be opened to the enemies of this nation.”
Strikes in the Iranian capital on Wednesday hit a Russian Orthodox church, damaging the building, but there were no casualties, the Russian embassy in Tehran says.
“On April 1, two strikes were conducted near the Saint Nicholas Orthodox Church in Tehran. Main building, almshouse and several technical facilities were damaged. No victims,” the embassy says in a post on X.
It posts images of the aftermath showing a ceiling partially collapsed, debris on the floor and blown out windows.
On April 1, two strikes were conducted near the Saint-Nicholas Orthodox Church in Tehran.
Main building, almshouse and several technical facilities were damaged. No victims 🙏🏻
Statement by the Embassy: https://t.co/zg8QABxkOp pic.twitter.com/eMztNvy7Cu
— Russian Embassy in Iran (@rusembiran) April 1, 2026
President Emmanuel Macron says France has not been consulted and wasn’t taking part in the war against Iran, after US leader Donald Trump criticized the country’s overflight ban on planes carrying military supplies for the conflict.
“It is absolutely true that France, which has not been consulted and is not part of this military offensive launched by the United States and Israel, is not taking part in it,” Macron says in an interview with Japanese broadcaster NHK during his visit to Tokyo, adding that had been France’s stance since “day one” of the war.
Oil supply disruptions from the Middle East will rise in April and begin to impact Europe’s economy as the closure of the Strait of Hormuz severely curbs supplies, International Energy Agency head Fatih Birol says.
More than 12 million barrels of oil have been lost since the start of the US-Israel war on Iran due to Tehran’s attacks on energy assets in the region and restrictions on shipping through the Strait, he adds.
“The loss of oil in April will be twice the oil loss in March, on top of the loss of LNG… It will come through inflation and will cut economic growth in many countries,” Birol tells a podcast with Nicolai Tangen, the head of Norway’s sovereign wealth fund.
Losses are expected to widen in April, since a number of oil and LNG cargoes arriving in March were contracted before the war and continued towards their destinations, he added.
The biggest problem is the lack of jet fuel and diesel, which has already affected Asian countries but was also due to hit Europe, Birol said.
“We are seeing that in Asia, but soon, I think, in April or May, it would come to Europe,” he adds.
Birol repeats that the IEA is considering a further release of strategic reserves after its members agreed to release a record 400 million barrels of oil.
The current oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply disruption is worse than the two oil crises in 1973 and 1979, as well as the loss of Russian gas volumes due to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, combined, Birol said.
About 40 key energy assets in the Middle East have been damaged since the start of the war, and it would take some time to get them back, he adds.
“We are heading to a major, major disruption and the biggest in history up to now,” Birol says.
NATO is a military alliance that ensures the security of the Euro-Atlantic area and is not designed to carry out operations in the Strait of Hormuz that would breach international law, France’s junior army minister says.
“Let me remind you what NATO is. It is a military alliance concerned with the security of the Euro-Atlantic region. It is not designed to carry out operations in the Strait of Hormuz, which would be a breach of international law,” Alice Rufo says at the War & Peace conference in Paris.
US President Donald Trump said he was strongly considering pulling the United States out of NATO after allies failed to back US military action against Iran, according to an interview with Britain’s Daily Telegraph.
A German government spokesperson reaffirms Berlin’s commitment to the NATO defense alliance on Wednesday after comments by US President Donald Trump to Britain’s Daily Telegraph that he had moved beyond reconsidering his country’s membership.
“This isn’t the first time he’s done this, and since it’s a recurring phenomenon, you can probably judge the consequences for yourself,” says the spokesperson at a regular government press conference.
“It’s not my place here to comment on the American president’s words. I simply want to state on behalf of the German government that we are, of course, committed to NATO.”
Iranian authorities warned NATO member Bulgaria last month not to let the US use its airports for planes participating in military operations in Iran, the foreign ministry says.
Earlier on Wednesday, Stanislav Balabanov, a deputy with the “There is Such People” party, showed a note from March 18 in which the Iranian government protested against US military refuelling planes parked at Bulgaria’s Vasil Levski airport.
In the note, Iran said it “reserves the right to take all necessary measures to protect its sovereignty, security and national interests in accordance with international law.”
Later on Wednesday, in a statement to reporters, Deputy Foreign Minister Marin Raikov confirms the note and says: “Bulgaria is not at war.”
“No combat aircraft are being loaded over Bulgaria to participate in military operations,” he told reporters. “We maintain intact diplomatic relations with the Iranian side.”
In late February, Bulgarian media reported that several US military planes landed at the Sofia Vasil Levski civilian airport, and authorities have said they were part of the NATO forward deployment, which Raikov confirms.
“Our parliament has not approved decisions to support relevant military actions in the Strait of Hormuz region,” he says.
Some European countries, concerned over the war with Iran, have pushed back on US military operations.
Spain closed its airspace and denied base access, Italy rejected a stopover at Sigonella base, and France blocked overflight of US–Israel weapons flights.
Germany has made clear to the Israeli government that blocking access to holy sites in Jerusalem threatened to make tensions there worse, a foreign ministry spokesperson says.
“I think we made our position very clear to the Israeli government on this matter, even in internal discussions,” says the spokesperson.
“Denying access to the holy sites is something that, in our view, threatens to further inflame the already tense situation on the ground,” adds the spokesperson.
Israel blocked Jerusalem’s Catholic cardinal from marking Palm Sunday at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, sparking an international outcry that led Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reverse the ban for the remainder of Holy Week.
Ukrainian drone interceptors and military expertise are delivering results in the Middle East, President Volodymyr Zelensky says.
Zelenskiy says that Ukraine was already cooperating with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Jordan, and was also in contact with Bahrain, Kuwait, and Iraq.
The government team was also in talks on potential engagements with Turkey and several other countries, he says.
The United States will be “out of Iran pretty quickly” and could return for “spot hits” if needed, President Donald Trump tells Reuters, hours before he is scheduled to make a primetime address to the nation.
Trump also says he will state in the speech that he is considering withdrawing the US from the NATO alliance.
Asked when the United States would consider the Iran war over, Trump says: “I can’t tell you exactly …. we’re going to be out pretty quickly.”
He says US action has ensured Iran will not have a nuclear weapon.
“They won’t have a nuclear weapon because they are incapable of that now, and then I’ll leave, and I’ll take everybody with me, and if we have to we’ll come back to do spot hits,” Trump says.
Of Iran’s enriched uranium, Trump says: “That’s so far underground, I don’t care about that.”
“We’ll always be watching it by satellite,” he adds.
Rescuers manage to evacuate a woman who was trapped under a six-story apartment building in south Tel Aviv that partially collapsed in an incident unrelated to the Iran war.
The woman has been rushed to the hospital in moderate condition, Hebrew media says.
The far-right legal aid organization Honenu says that 14 Jewish men and boys have been arrested by police for trying to smuggle sacrificial goats onto the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
In ancient times, Passover provided another chance for those who had not been able to bring the Passover sacrifice to the Jerusalem Temple to fulfill the religious commandment.
Past years have seen similar attempts around the religious festival to smuggle in goats for sacrifice on the Temple Mount, an ultra-sensitive site holy to both Jews and Muslims.
US President Donald Trump claims Iran’s “new regime president,” who is “much less radicalized and far more intelligent than his predecessors, has just asked the United States of America for a CEASEFIRE!”
Trump writes on Truth Social that the US will consider the purported ceasefire offer “when Hormuz Strait is open, free and clear.”
“Until then, we are blasting Iran into oblivion or, as they say, back to the Stone Ages!!!”
It is not immediately clear who Trump is referring to as the “new regime president.”
Earlier this week, Trump confirmed that the US was engaging with Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, though he has not been appointed president and is not seen to be any less hardline than previous Iranian leaders.
On Wednesday, Iran’s actual president, Masoud Pezeshkian — who has been in the role since 2024 — did say Iran is prepared to accept a ceasefire, but only if it receives security guarantees.
The post also indicates Trump has again shifted his stance regarding the Strait of Hormuz.
Last week, he threatened to bomb Iran’s energy sites if Tehran didn’t allow the safe passage of all ships through the strait.
Yesterday, though, he indicated several times that the US was prepared to end the war without the issue being resolved and that other countries would have to step up and address the issue because it impacts them more than the US.
One person is lightly wounded after a Hezbollah rocket struck a home in the northern city of Kiryat Shmona, medics say.
Magen David Adom says it treated a 61-year-old man who was lightly hurt by the blast. Four others were also treated for acute anxiety, MDA adds.
Meanwhile, fresh sirens sound in the Western Galilee amid a new Hezbollah rocket attack from Lebanon.
Ebrahim Azizi, head of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security Commission, warns that the United States will not regain access to the Strait of Hormuz and that from now on only “those who comply” with Iran’s terms will be allowed to pass vessels through the key strait.
“The Strait of Hormuz will certainly reopen, but not for you; it will be open for those who comply with the new laws of Iran,” writes Azizi on X, without elaborating on what these new terms are.
“The 47 years of hospitality are over forever,” he adds.
Azizi’s remarks follow British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s announcement earlier today that Britain will this week hold a meeting of about 35 countries to discuss how to reopen the strait.
Iran and countries across the Middle East are using the war as an excuse to clamp down on rights, the UN says as it denounces attempts to limit media freedom in Israel and the United States.
“We are witnessing a sharp securitization of civic space across the region, with severe restrictions imposed by governments on people exercising their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly,” UN rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement.
He also decried “attempts to limit media freedom, such as restrictions imposed by Israeli military censorship authorities, and a threat by the US Federal Communications Commission to revoke broadcast licenses for coverage deemed critical of the war.”
Damage was caused to a home in Kiryat Shmona by a Hezbollah rocket strike, rescue services say.
No physical injuries are reported.
Sirens had sounded in the city amid the attack from Lebanon.
A United Arab Emirates official describes as “misleading” a Wall Street Journal report today that the Gulf nation is pushing for military action to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and is itself willing to take part.
“Recent reporting suggesting a shift in the UAE’s posture is misleading,” the official says in a statement. “The UAE maintains a defensive posture focused on protecting its sovereignty, its people, and its infrastructure, and reserves its right to self-defense in response to ongoing unlawful and unprovoked attacks.”
The official adds that the UAE “remains ready to support collective international efforts aimed at safeguarding maritime security and ensuring the uninterrupted flow of commerce. Any such engagement would have to be conducted in full coordination with international partners and in strict adherence to international law.”
Rescue forces say they are responding to reports of a Hezbollah rocket impact in the northern city of Kiryat Shmona.
There are no immediate reports of injuries.
Settler activists attempt this morning to establish a new illegal settlement inside the West Bank Palestinian village of Tayasir, which has been the subject of severe settler attacks in the last two weeks.
The outpost was subsequently evacuated by IDF forces during the course of the day, Tayasir resident Amer Dabak and the IDF itself say.
Dabak says that the settlers had set up their outpost, including tents and other structures inside Tayasir itself, which is located in the northern Jordan Valley.
He also claims that IDF soldiers accompanied the settlers while setting up the outpost and that it was established “under their protection.” The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit says it is “unfamiliar with such reports.”
Palestinian residents of rural communities and Israeli human rights organizations increasingly accuse IDF soldiers of collaborating with settler extremists to harass such communities and forcibly displace them from the land.
Extremist settlers have often used the tactic of setting up an outpost extremely close to small rural Palestinian communities, and using it as a forward post to commit violence against such villages to force them to leave. Such tactics have been used in Zanuta in the South Hebron Hills, Wadi as-Seeq in the central West Bank, and Muarrajat in the southern Jordan Valley, among many others.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir again warns lawmakers that the military faces “severe harm” if the government does not pass legislation that provides solutions to the army’s personnel shortages.
Zamir was responding to members of Knesset who sent him a letter regarding the removal of a reservist battalion from the West Bank, after troops detained and allegedly assaulted a CNN crew while trumpeting far-right ideology.
The IDF chief, in his response letter dated March 30, says, “I would like to take advantage of the opportunity that you sent me an important letter, and the concern that you raised regarding IDF soldiers and the reserve system in particular, and to call on you to fulfill your responsibility.”
“In January, the decision to shorten mandatory service to 30 months will come into effect, and this is despite my clear demand in the past year to move in the opposite direction, of extending the service,” he says. “The meaning of this is severe harm and a decrease in the IDF force size, which will be expressed in a shortage of thousands of fighters and combat-support personnel.”
A “heavy price” will be paid by reservists and their families, says Zamir: “They are the ones who will be called to service time after time.”
“I ‘raised red flags’ both in the last cabinet meeting and in meetings with the subcommittee of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, and on additional opportunities,” he says, confirming reported warnings he recently made to lawmakers.
The government has been working to pass a bill that would enshrine blanket exemptions from military conscription for Haredi yeshiva students, despite the IDF warning repeatedly that it needs more troops after two years of war.
The IDF has said it urgently needs 12,000 recruits — mostly combat troops — due to the strain on standing and reserve forces caused by the war, which began on October 7, 2023.
“In summary, in light of the expansion of missions in the coming years and the motivation of the IDF to realize them all with excellence, the IDF is required to grow,” Zamir says. “As we have expressed more than once, we need a large and strong army.”
The Lebanese military says its forces have largely withdrawn from some border towns as Israeli troops continue to push a ground invasion into the country.
The Lebanese military says in a statement that troops had to reposition to prevent being dispersed and cut off from support lines.
Lebanon’s armed forces have gradually withdrawn from a handful of border towns. Remaining residents in the Christian-majority communities of Rmeich and Ain Ebel have appealed to the Lebanese military and leadership to stay.
The Lebanese military says it will maintain soldiers in those towns.
Israel has declared that southern Lebanon up to the Litani River will be a “security zone” in its ongoing war with Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah, and residents will not be able to return until further notice.
Over 1 million people in Lebanon have been displaced over the past month as the IDF stepped up operations in the country following the renewal of Hezbollah rocket attacks on Israel amid the war with Iran.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
An airstrike in Tehran this morning appears to have struck inside the former US Embassy compound there.
The embassy has been controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps since the 444-day hostage crisis there that followed the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The IRGC’s all-volunteer Basij force operates the compound, running an anti-American museum inside the embassy and having different operations on its grounds in newer buildings.
Witnesses say they saw blown-out windows surrounding the massive compound on Tehran’s Taleghani Street. However, there was no missile strike visible around the compound, with witnesses saying they believe the strike happened inside the compound.
Russia’s embassy in Iran says the strike broke doors and windows at St. Nicholas Orthodox Cathedral, just across from the compound of the former American embassy. An adjacent Russian nursing home sustained damage, including a collapsed roof, the Russian embassy adds.
“We strongly condemn the ongoing US and Israeli aggression against Iran, which is increasingly affecting civilian infrastructure and religious and cultural heritage,” Russia’s embassy says.
British police arrested three men in connection with the arson attack on Jewish community ambulances in north London in March, authorities say, in addition to two arrests made last week.
The men, aged 20, 19 and 17, were arrested at three separate addresses in east London on suspicion of conspiracy to commit arson with intent to endanger life, the Metropolitan Police says in a statement.
The military publishes footage showing the Israeli Air Force’s 120th Squadron’s aerial refueling activities amid the war with Iran.
According to the IDF, more than 2,000 separate aerial refuelings were carried out over the skies of the Middle East, allowing hundreds of IAF fighter jets to operate in Iran, located over 1,500 kilometers (932 miles) from Israel.
״מתחבר, מוכן לניתוק, שיהיה בהצלחה במשימה״: חיל האוויר ביצע עד כה יותר מ-2,000 תדלוקים אוויריים בדרך לתקיפות באיראן
מאז תחילת מבצע ״שאגת הארי״, מאות מטוסי קרב של חיל האוויר פועלים בשמי איראן ותוקפים מטרות של משטר הטרור האיראני.
התדלוק האווירי מהווה רכיב הכרחי בפעילות חיל האוויר… pic.twitter.com/xTrF6fPE8B— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) April 1, 2026
The IAF has also relied heavily on the US military’s aerial refueling capabilities, as the US military has a much larger refueling fleet. Dozens of US refueling tankers have been stationed in Israel amid the conflict.
Britain will this week hold a meeting of about 35 countries to discuss how to reopen the strategic Strait of Hormuz that has been crippled by the Middle East war, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer announces.
UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper will host the discussions, Starmer tells reporters during a Downing Street press conference, without specifying the day of the talks.
The meeting will “assess all viable diplomatic and political measures that we can take to restore freedom of navigation, guarantee the safety of trapped ships and seafarers and resume the movement of vital commodities,” Starmer says.
“Following that meeting, we will also convene our military planners to look at how we can marshal our capabilities and make the strait accessible and safe after the fighting has stopped,” he adds.
The discussions will include countries that recently signed a statement saying they were ready “to contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz,” Starmer says. Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the Netherlands are among those to have signed it.
“I do have to level with people on this. This (reopening) will not be easy,” says Starmer.
Meanwhile, Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi also announces her country has agreed to coordinate closely with France in pushing for an end to the Iran war and the reopening of Hormuz.
“Because the international situation is so challenging, I believe there is great significance in the leaders of Japan and France deepening their personal ties and making our cooperation even stronger,” Takaichi says after talks with French President Emmanuel Macron in Tokyo on security ties and industrial cooperation.
Macron also says he shares Takaichi’s position on the need to restore freedom of navigation in the strait.
Japan, which normally gets around 90% of its oil from the Middle East, has begun drawing on its oil reserves to cushion the economic blow from the closure of the strait. Tokyo has said it could consider dispatching minesweepers, though the scope of any role would be constrained by its pacifist constitution.
Iran has virtually closed the vital strait since the US-Israeli strikes that started the war on February 28, causing global oil and gas prices to soar. A fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas passes through the strait in peacetime.
The IDF announces that it recently determined that a soldier killed in Israel’s War of Independence, who until now had been considered missing, was buried in a mass grave in a northern kibbutz.
Pvt. Dov Parmet was killed in action on June 5, 1948, when the 1st Company of the Oded Brigade’s 11th Battalion encountered and battled a Syrian-Lebanese enemy force near the community of Malkia.
Following the battle, Parmet was listed as a fallen soldier whose burial site is unknown.
“After years of intensive efforts to locate findings for his return to burial, in 2020, a special investigation team was established, which carried out numerous and diverse investigative actions to locate Parmet’s burial place,” the military says.
The IDF says its investigation included “document analysis, witness interrogation, soil analysis and archaeological surveys.”
The investigation led to the conclusion that Parmet was buried in a mass grave in Kibbutz Maoz Haim alongside 16 other soldiers slain during the 1948 battles at Malkia.
Last night, Parmet’s family, including his niece, were updated on the military’s findings by Adjutant Corps Chief Brig. Gen. Edna Ilia.
The IDF says that in the near future, an official ceremony will be held to add a headstone with Parmet’s name at the military cemetery in Maoz Haim.
Rescuers are searching for a person trapped in a six-story south Tel Aviv apartment building that partially collapsed today, the Fire and Rescue Service says, stressing that the incident is unrelated to the war with Iran.
Another person who was trapped in the building has already been rescued and was hospitalized in moderate condition, the Magen David Adom ambulance service says.
חלק מבניין קרס בדרום תל אביב, אישה נפצעה באורח בינוני | @lee_ayash pic.twitter.com/vvNKdhd72O
— i24NEWS (@i24NEWS_HE) April 1, 2026
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer says he will act in the country’s interest, whatever the “noise,” when asked about US President Donald Trump saying he was strongly considering pulling the United States out of NATO.
“Whatever the pressure on me and others, whatever the noise, I’m going to act in the British national interest in the decisions that I make,” Starmer tells reporters.
The commander of Hezbollah’s Southern Front, responsible for the terror group’s military activity in south Lebanon, was killed in an Israeli Navy strike in Beirut last night, the IDF announces.
The strike in the Lebanese capital killed Hajj Yusuf Ismail Hashem, who took over the Southern Front from Ali Karaki in September 2024, after the latter was killed alongside Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli strike.
Hashem was a “senior commander with over 40 years of experience and a central figure in the terror organization,” the military says.
“For years, and particularly in recent times, Hashem led and advanced thousands of terror attack plans against Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers,” the IDF says, adding that “his elimination constitutes a significant blow to Hezbollah’s ability to carry out terror operations against Israeli civilians and to manage ongoing combat against IDF soldiers in southern Lebanon.”
Hashem is the most senior Hezbollah commander to have been killed by Israel since hostilities escalated amid the war with Iran.
A “military council” comprising senior officers of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has reportedly taken de facto control of the country, vetoing appointments by President Masoud Pezeshkian while cutting him off from Mojtaba Khamenei, the Supreme Leader.
Khamenei, who is considered a close IRGC ally, has not been seen in public since he was appointed after his father and predecessor Ali Khamenei was killed in the opening salvo of the US-Israeli bombing campaign in Iran on February 28. The younger Khamenei is thought to have also been wounded.
Informed sources cited by dissident news outlet Iran International say IRGC chief Ahmad Vahidi has nixed all of Pezeshkian’s proposed candidates for the role of intelligence minister. Israel earlier this month killed Iranian Intelligence Minister Esmaeil Khatib.
The president is now in “complete political deadlock,” say the sources.
Iranian presidents typically nominate candidates for such roles only after security approval from the country’s supreme leader, who holds the final word on all matters of state.
But the IRGC council has placed a “security cordon” around Khamenei and prevented any contact between him and Pezeshkian despite repeated requests by the president, which have gone unanswered, Iran International says.
The council has also prevented government reports on the situation in Iran from reaching Khamenei, and has effectively taken control of the country’s decision-making apparatus, according to the outlet.
In addition, the IRGC is pushing to purge the Supreme Leader’s office of Ali Asghar Hejazi, a top aide to Ali Khamenei who explicitly opposed Mojtaba’s appointment to supreme leader, according to Iran International.
Informed sources cited by the outlet say Hejazi had warned that the younger Khamenei was unqualified for the role, that appointing him would give the IRGC full control of the country, and that hereditary succession was incompatible with Ali Khamenei’s principles.
US President Donald Trump says he is seriously weighing leaving the NATO alliance after it didn’t join the US-Israeli campaign again Iran.
“Oh yes, I would say [it’s] beyond reconsideration,” he tells UK newspaper The Telegraph. “I was never swayed by NATO. I always knew they were a paper tiger, and Putin knows that too, by the way.”
He argues that the US did its part to protect Ukraine, even though it wasn’t America’s problem.
“We’ve been there automatically, including Ukraine,” says Trump, who has aired repeated skepticism about the trans-Atlantic military alliance. “Ukraine wasn’t our problem. It was a test, and we were there for them, and we would always have been there for them. They weren’t there for us.”
He also blasts UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and British military capabilities: “You don’t even have a navy. You’re too old and had aircraft carriers that didn’t work.”
Bahrain has circulated a revised UN Security Council draft resolution on protecting commercial shipping in and around the Strait of Hormuz, retaining language authorizing “all necessary means” but dropping an explicit reference to binding enforcement.
The initial draft, seen by Reuters and backed by other Gulf Arab states and Washington, explicitly invoked Chapter VII of the UN Charter, which allows the Security Council to authorize measures ranging from sanctions to military force.
Diplomats said adoption of such a resolution would have been unlikely, as Iran’s partners Russia and China were expected to veto it if necessary.
The revised text seen by Reuters, which diplomats said is still under negotiation, removes the reference to Chapter VII, but retains language associated with it.
It would authorize states, acting alone or through voluntary multinational naval coalitions, to use “all necessary means commensurate with the circumstances” in the Strait of Hormuz, the Gulf and the Gulf of Oman to ensure passage and prevent interference with international navigation, including within or near territorial waters.
The draft also encourages states that rely on commercial maritime routes through the strait to coordinate defensive efforts, including the escort of merchant vessels.
Diplomats say there is a tentative aim to put the text to a vote on Thursday.
Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly a fifth of global oil supplies normally pass and which underpins Gulf economies, has slowed to a near‑halt after Iran struck vessels amid its conflict with the United States and Israel.
The Justice Ministry’s Pardons Department says it has handed over the additional materials requested by President Isaac Herzog’s office about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s pardon request.
The president’s legal adviser, Michal Tzuk, had said Sunday that she was requesting from the ministry “additional supplementary materials,” including “precedents in the exercise of the pardon authority prior to the conclusion of criminal proceedings.”
Herzog is under intense pressure from coalition members and from US President Donald Trump to pardon Netanyahu, who is standing trial on one charge of bribery, as well as three charges of fraud and breach of trust, after being indicted in 2020.
Earlier this month, the Pardons Department filed a position paper on Netanyahu’s pardon request, determining that pardoning him would be problematic and unprecedented because his trial is ongoing and the November pardon request did not admit guilt or express remorse.
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar applauds Argentina’s President Javier Milei for declaring Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization.
“This decision follows his designation of Hezbollah and Hamas as terrorist organizations, and places Argentina, under his leadership, at the forefront of the free world in the fight against the Iranian regime of terror and its proxies,” Sa’ar writes on X.
Argentina under Milei declared Hamas a terror group in 2024. Hezbollah, which carried out a deadly 1994 bombing on a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, was declared a terror group in Argentina in 2019, under former President Mauricio Macri.
Noting the 1994 attack and a 1992 Iran-led attack on Israel’s embassy in Buenos Aires, Sa’ar writes that by declaring IRGC a terror group, “President Milei — one of the greatest leaders of our generation — has once again demonstrated moral clarity and an unwavering commitment to the values of freedom and the fight against its enemies.”
Milei already declared the IRGC’s foreign arm, the Quds Force, a terrorist organization in January.
Sergei Naryshkin, the head of Russia’s SVR foreign intelligence service, says the agency was in touch with its US counterpart the CIA about the situation in Iran.
The statement comes amid accusations that Russia has provided Iran with intelligence and technical know-how to carry out attacks across the region amid the war with Israel and the US.
A general strike is taking place in parts of the West Bank today to protest a law passed by the Knesset on Monday that makes death by hanging the default punishment for West Bank Palestinians convicted of deadly terrorist acts.
The strike was announced yesterday by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement and is being observed in parts of the West Bank that are governed by the PA.
📌 #تغطية_خاصة – إضراب شامل في الضفة الغربية رفضا لقانون "إعدام الأسرى".
▶️ شاهد فيديو #المجلة pic.twitter.com/Zy4muyYwLi
— المجلة (@AlMajallaAR) April 1, 2026
Qatar’s defense ministry confirms that an oil tanker leased to state-owned QatarEnergy was hit by an Iranian cruise missile in Qatari waters.
Qatar was targeted by three cruise missiles coming from Iran, two of which were intercepted while the third hit the Aqua 1 fuel oil tanker, but caused no casualties, the ministry says.
The vessel, located 31 kilometers (17 nautical miles) north of Qatar’s Ras Laffan industrial hub — the site of the world’s largest gas plant — sustained damage above the waterline, but no environmental impact was reported, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) and QatarEnergy.
A 6-year-old boy was hit by a car his morning while on his way to a bomb shelter following sirens warning of an incoming Iranian missile attack in the central city of Rishon Lezion, the Magen David Adom ambulance service says.
The boy is conscious and hospitalized in moderate condition, MDA says.
The latest Iranian missile fired at central Israel was intercepted, according to the IDF.
It marked the fourth attack since this morning.
Rescue forces are responding to reports of possible fragments that hit several areas, though no injuries are reported.
At least seven people were killed in Israeli strikes overnight on Beirut’s southern suburbs and a nearby town, Lebanon’s health ministry says.
The IDF has said it carried out two separate attacks on a top Hezbollah commander and “another senior terrorist” in the Beirut area, with no further details.
The Lebanese health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, says five people were killed and 21 others wounded in an Israeli raid in the Jnah area, which borders Hezbollah’s stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut.
A Lebanese security source says four cars parked on a street were targeted. The state-run National News Agency (NNA) says the strike originated from a warship.
A separate strike that hit a vehicle in Khaldeh, just south of the capital, late Tuesday killed two people and wounded three, the health ministry says.
The NNA also reports a strike early Wednesday on the Hadath district in Beirut’s southern suburbs, which has largely emptied of residents following repeated Israeli strikes and evacuation orders.
Other Israeli artillery attacks and airstrikes hit Lebanon’s south and the adjacent West Bekaa area, both Hezbollah strongholds, the NNA says.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Ten injured people, including a girl in critical condition, have been evacuated to medical centers after the missile barrage this morning.
Sheba Medical Center says medical teams are now “fighting for the life” of the girl, whose father is in moderate condition.
Seven other people were also admitted to the hospital. In addition, six children are now undergoing medical evaluation.
A Rabin Medical Center spokesperson said that a woman and her son were also admitted to the hospital. The mother is in moderate condition and the child, who has been transferred to Schneider Children’s Medical Center, is in serious condition.
The IDF has identified another ballistic missile attack from Iran, targeting central Israel.
Sirens are expected to sound in the coming minutes.
The Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen take responsibility for this morning’s ballistic missile attack on southern Israel.
In a statement, the Hotuhis claim to have targeted “sensitive Israeli enemy targets” in the south with a “barrage of ballistic missiles.”
The Houthis also claim the attack was “conducted jointly with” Iran and Hezbollah.
According to the IDF, one missile fired from Yemen was intercepted. There were no reports of injuries.
No injuries are reported following Iran’s latest ballistic attack on Israel, the third since this morning.
The missile, which triggered sirens in central Israel, was intercepted, according to the IDF.
A top engineering officer in the Quds Force, the extraterritorial arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Iran yesterday, the military says.
The IDF says the strike in Mahallat, in central Iran, killed Mahdi Vafaei, chief of engineering in the IRGC Quds Force’s Lebanon Corps.
“Throughout his 20 years as the head of the engineering branch of the corps, Vafaei advanced underground projects across Lebanon and Syria,” the military says in a statement.
The IDF says Vafaei led efforts to establish subterranean infrastructure for Hezbollah and the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria, “and managed dozens of underground projects in Lebanon utilized for the storage of advanced weapons.”
The IDF has detected a new ballistic missile attack from Iran, again targeting central Israel.
Sirens are expected to sound shortly.
The latest ballistic missiles fired by Iran at Israel were all allowed to strike open areas, “according to protocol,” says the IDF.
The small number of missiles triggered sirens across northern and central Israel, as well as an early warning in the south.
Meanwhile, a drone launched by Hezbollah from Lebanon at northern Israel was intercepted, the military says.
No injuries are reported.
A Bangladeshi national was killed by falling shrapnel after a drone interception in the United Arab Emirates, the official WAM news agency says.
“Shrapnel falling from the interception of a drone… resulted in the killing of a person of Bangladeshi nationality,” WAM posts on X, adding that the incident happened in Fujairah, which is close to the Strait of Hormuz.
At least 14 people are injured, including a young girl in serious condition, following Iran’s ballistic missile attack on central Israel this morning, medics say.
Magen David Adom says it treated an 11-year-old girl in serious condition, after she was hit by shrapnel, along with a woman aged 36 and a 13-year-old boy who were hit by blasts in Bnei Brak.
Another 11 people were treated for minor injuries, MDA adds.
The Iranian missile carried a cluster bomb warhead, spreading bomblets over a wide area.
Multiple impacts occurred in the central city of Bnei Brak, as well as in Tel Aviv, according to rescue services.
It marked the first missile attack from Iran on Israel in nearly 21 hours.
The IDF has identified another ballistic missile launch from Iran.
Sirens are expected to sound across Israel in the coming minutes.
First responders are en route to reported impact sites in the Tel Aviv area following an Iranian missile strike that triggered sirens in central Israel.
Initial reports indicate at least three people were wounded and a building in Bnei Brak was hit by cluster bomb submunitions.
A roughly 70-year-old woman was killed this morning in a fire in an apartment in the northern town of Ma’alot-Tarshiha, the Magen David Adom ambulance service says.
Medics declared the woman dead after firefighters responding to the flames found her unconscious in the apartment, first responders say.
The Fire and Rescue Service says the flames were brought under control and their cause is under investigation.
The Israeli military says it has completed a wave of airstrikes in Tehran a short while ago.
The IDF says the strikes hit Iranian regime infrastructure sites, with further details to be provided later.
Dubai-based airline Emirates says on its website that Iranian nationals are not allowed to enter or transit the United Arab Emirates, amid heightened tensions between Iran and Gulf states.
The website of another carrier, Flydubai, says Iranian nationals holding a UAE “Golden Visa” are exempt and permitted to enter and transit the country.
An Israeli Air Force drone was shot down by Hezbollah over southern Lebanon overnight, the military says.
According to the IDF, the drone was providing support for ground troops when it was hit by a surface-to-air missile and crashed.
The military says there is no fear of information leaking from the drone, and the incident is under further investigation.
Warning sirens sound in the northern cities of Safed and Kiryat Shmona along with numerous other communities near the border with Lebanon, as Hezbollah launches rockets and drones at Israel.
A ballistic missile launched by the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen at southern Israel was intercepted, according to the IDF.
No injuries are reported. Sirens had sounded in Beersheba and across the south.
The Houthis have fired several missiles and drones at Israel since joining the fighting last week amid the war with Iran.
VATICAN CITY — Pope Leo XIV expresses hope that the US-Israel war on Iran can be finished before Easter.
“I’m told that President Trump has recently stated that he would like to end the war,’’ the US-born pope says. “I hope that he’s looking for an off-ramp.’’
“Hopefully he’s looking for a way to decrease the amount of violence, of bombing, which would be a significant contribution to removing the hatred that’s being created, that’s increasing constantly in the Middle East and elsewhere.”
Leo calls on all world leaders to return to dialogue and look for “ways to reduce the amount of violence,’’ so that “peace, especially at Easter, might reign in our hearts.’’
The IDF has detected a new ballistic missile launch by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels, targeting southern Israel.
Sirens are activated in communities across the south.
The United Arab Emirates is readying to help the United States and other American allies in using military force to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the Wall Street Journal reports, with the Gulf state pushing for a UN Security Council Resolution that would green light such an operation as it faces continued Iranian attacks.
An Emirati official tells the newspaper that the country’s diplomats have urged the US along with unspecified European and Asian military powers to establish a coalition to forcefully open the Strait of Hormuz, and the UAE is looking into what military contributions it can make to help brake Iran’s grip on the strait.
In response, the UAE foreign ministry did not deny the report, saying that there is a “broad global consensus that freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz must be preserved.”
The Israeli Air Force has dropped over 16,000 bombs in Iran since the start of the war, in over 800 waves of strikes, the military says.
According to the IDF, over 10,000 separate strikes have been carried out on 4,000 targets, including air defense systems, ballistic missile launchers, weapon production sites, nuclear facilities, various headquarters, and military commanders and leaders.
Iran’s state broadcaster IRIB says areas in northern, eastern and central Tehran are under attack.
The broadcaster says on Telegram that explosions have been heard in the capital’s north, east and center, reporting “attacks on Tehran” without immediately providing more details.
An Iranian drone attack targeted fuel tanks at Kuwait’s international airport, sparking a large fire but causing no casualties, Kuwaiti state news agency KUNA says.
Emergency teams rushed to the site, but initial reports show only material damage at the facility run by the Kuwait Aviation Fueling Company, the agency adds, citing a spokesperson for civil aviation authorities.
Bahrain’s interior ministry meanwhile says that civil defense teams are extinguishing a fire at a company facility following what authorities described as an Iranian attack, adding that relevant authorities are taking necessary measures at the site.
No immediate details are provided on the company, casualties or the extent of damage.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says that the United States “is going to have to reexamine” its relationship with NATO once the war against Iran has concluded.
“I think there’s no doubt, unfortunately, after this conflict is concluded, we are going to have to reexamine that relationship. We’re going to have to reexamine the value of NATO in that alliance for our country,” Rubio says on Fox News, adding that “ultimately” it would be a decision for President Donald Trump to make.
Iran acknowledges the strike on Tofigh Daru factory, which the IDF says was supplying Iran’s theocracy with fentanyl for chemical weapons, but insists it only supplied “hospital drugs” used in medical operations.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posts a picture of the factory in Tehran, writing on X: “The war criminals in Israel are now openly and unashamedly bombing pharmaceutical companies.”
Hospitals extensively use fentanyl to treat severe pain. But a small amount of the drug — which has helped fuel the US opioid epidemic — can be fatal.
The war criminals in Israel are now openly and unashamedly bombing pharmaceutical companies.
Their intentions are clear.
What they've gotten wrong is that they're not dealing with defenseless Palestinian civilians. Our Powerful Armed Forces will severely punish aggressors. pic.twitter.com/wh2FZUldR7
— Seyed Abbas Araghchi (@araghchi) March 31, 2026
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The United Arab Emirates has barred Iranians from entering or transiting the country as the war rages, three major airlines say.
The long-haul carriers Emirates and Etihad, as well as the lower-cost airline FlyDubai, make the announcements on their websites.
Entry rules can sometimes be opaque in the autocratic United Arab Emirates, a federation of seven sheikhdoms. But the airlines’ websites all display the order. It says holders of Golden Visas, 10-year residency permits in the country, can still enter.
Authorities offer no official comment. But the change comes as Dubai already has shut down the Iranian Hospital and Iranian Club in the city, two institutions in the city-state dating back to the time of the shah.
BUENOS AIRES — Argentina has designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization, its presidential office says, following a push from the Trump administration for allies to do so.
Argentina attributed the measure to the IRGC’s backing for Lebanon-based Hezbollah, which it blames for the deadliest bombing in the South American nation’s history, a 1994 terrorist attack on the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires that killed 85 and injured hundreds.
The presidential office says the measure allows for the implementation of financial sanctions and other operational restrictions.
The IRGC is an elite military force whose purpose is to protect Shi’ite Muslim clerical rule in Iran. It controls large parts of Iran’s economy.
Both the IRGC and Hezbollah are already designated as terrorist groups by the United States and some other countries.
A tanker has been hit by a projectile in the Gulf, off the coast of Qatar’s capital Doha, a British maritime security agency says, reporting some damage but no casualties.
The UK Maritime Trade Operations says it received a report of an incident 17 nautical miles (31 kilometers) north of Doha that a “tanker has been hit by unknown projectile on the port side causing damage to the hull above water line. The crew are reported as safe.”
It adds there is “no environmental impact” and that authorities are investigating the incident.
The White House announces that US President Donald Trump will “address the nation” on Wednesday night at 9 p.m. eastern time to provide an update on the war in Iran.
The IDF announces that it carried out a strike Tuesday on a civilian factory in Iran producing the synthetic opioid fentanyl on behalf of the Islamic Republic’s chemical weapons program.
A statement from the Israel Defense Forces says that the fentanyl, which is at least 50 times stronger than heroin, was being transferred to the Iranian defense body tasked with producing chemical weapons in order to be used in “the research and development of chemical weapons.”
“The attack harmed the chemical weapons production capabilities of the Iranian terror regime,” the IDF says, adding that prior to the strike it took unspecified means “to reduce potential harm to civilians as much as possible.”
טרור באמצעות חברה אזרחית: צה״ל תקף מפעל שהעביר באופן שיטתי חומרים כימיים למשטר הטרור האיראני
צה״ל תקף מוקדם יותר היום, מפעל למחקר ופיתוח שהעביר באופן שיטתי חומרים כימיים למשטר הטרור האיראני.
המפעל בבעלות חברת תופיק דארו, שימש ספק מרכזי של פנטנילים לארגון ספ׳נד, האמון על פיתוח… pic.twitter.com/OfsKtvrkUO
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) March 31, 2026
WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump says Iran doesn’t have to agree to a deal for the US to end its military operation in the country.
“No, they don’t have to make a deal,” Trump says in response to the question in the Oval Office.
“When we feel that they are… put into the stone ages and won’t be able to come up with a nuclear weapon, then we’ll leave whether we have a deal or not,” Trump says. “It’s irrelevant now.”
It’s unclear if the US unilaterally ceases fire that Iran would follow suit.
Trump has claimed that the US already obliterated Iran’s nuclear program in strikes last year and said earlier Tuesday that he isn’t focused on Tehran’s stockpiles of highly-enriched uranium, so it’s unclear what else Trump is looking to accomplish militarily.
“It’s possible that we’ll have a deal because they want to make a deal more than I want to make a deal,” Trump adds.
“But in a fairly short period of time, we’ll be finished, and they will not be able to do a nuclear weapon for years,” he continues.
“Maybe in a long time from now, [they’ll be] able to do a nuclear weapon, you’ll have a president [who] will be like me, and he will go there and knock the hell out of them again,” Trump says, acknowledging that the ongoing war with Iran may not be definitive.
Just three weeks ago, Trump had made a nearly opposite statement, saying that he wanted to “make sure that we don’t have to go back every 10 years, when you don’t have a president like me that’s not going to do it.”
The military says that it carried out two separate attacks on “senior terrorists” in the Beirut area following Lebanese media reports of Israeli strikes around Lebanon’s capital.
The attacks targeted a senior Hezbollah commander and “another senior terrorist,” according to an IDF statement, which provides no further details.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump says the United States will probably wrap up the Iran war in two or three weeks — an admission that the war will likely extend beyond the White House’s four-to-six week timeline.
Speaking to reporters in the White House, Trump first says that the US will be “leaving” Iran “very soon,” insisting that gasoline prices will subsequently “tumble down” as well.
After a reporter notes that Americans are feeling the financial squeeze at the gas pump, Trump declares they’re also “feeling a lot safer” because Iran doesn’t have a nuclear weapon.
Trump claims the “detour” from improving the US economy was necessary in order to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb, something he says he already prevented in last year’s strikes against Tehran’s nuclear sites.
As for the Strait of Hormuz, Trump says other countries who want to get their oil through the key waterway will have to “fend for themselves,” acknowledging that Iran could drop mines or direct machine gun and RPG fire at ships.
“I think it’ll be very safe, but we have nothing to do with that,” Trump says of the strait, which Iran has shuttered in response to the US and Israeli attacks.
Trump asserts the US has done its part by taking out dozens of Iran’s “radicalized lunatic” leaders.
He also reiterates his claim that the US has enacted “regime change” in Iran, even though the Islamic Republic is still standing. Still, he insists that the new leadership is “much more rational.”
Trump then says regime change wasn’t even his goal to begin with, even though he urged Iranians to take over the government once the bombing stops in the speech he gave upon launching the war.
He insists that he only had one war aim: Ensuring Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.
His aides have listed at least four other goals, though those too have ranged from the destruction of Iran’s missile program, the destruction of its navy, the destruction of its air force and the cessation of its support for proxies
Pressed for a more specific timeline for when the war might end, Trump responds, “I think week two or three weeks.”
“Within maybe two weeks — maybe a couple of days longer,” Trump adds later on.
Trump has a history of providing two-week timelines in a variety of policy fields that he hasn’t typically stuck with.
“We want to knock out every single thing they have now, [But] it’s possible that we’ll make a deal before that,” Trump adds.
He says he’d like to hit some additional bridges in Iran, predicting that it will take 15 to 20 years to rebuild what has been hit in the war.
An Israeli airstrike hit a car on a major road south of Beirut, state media reports.
“The correspondent of the National News Agency reported that a car on the Khalde highway was targeted by more than one missile fired from a hostile Israeli drone,” it says, adding that emergency services are headed to the site.
U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon says Israel now blames Hezbollah for all three of the recent peacekeeper deaths in southern Lebanon, citing explosive devices Monday near Bani Ayan and the shelling of a UN peacekeeper position Saturday.
He provides no evidence, and a UN spokesman says the investigation is ongoing. The three Indonesian peacekeepers were killed as Israel and Hezbollah have been engaged in fighting.
Late on Tuesday, Israel’s military said its troops were not present in the southern Lebanon area where an explosion killed two UNIFIL peacekeepers on Monday. It also said no explosive device had been placed in the area by Israeli soldiers.
